From Leaving CertiFiCate to Leaving SChooL a Longitudinal Study ...

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From Leaving Certificate to Leaving School
reported enjoying their first year subjects more than their primary school
subjects also achieve higher exam grades (17.2 compared with 14.3 for
those who do not).
Figure 4.12: Leaving Certificate grade point average by class
allocation at junior cycle
G
P
A
V
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Mixed ability Higher stream Middle stream Lower stream
Class at junior cycle
The frequency of positive and negative interaction with teachers was
measured over the course of the schooling career (see Chapter Two). No
significant relationship is found between positive interaction at junior
cycle and Leaving Certificate performance. However, positive interaction
in fifth and sixth year is positively related to Leaving Certificate
grades (+0.15 and +0.18 respectively). The pattern for negative interaction
is quite different. Negative interaction with teachers across all years
(except the beginning of first year) is negatively related to Leaving Certificate
performance (with correlations of -0.24 to -0.34). The relationship
between negative interaction in second year and grades is almost as
strong as that between negative interaction in sixth year and grades. This
provides further support to our previous findings that second year experiences
are central to establishing the dynamics of teacher-student interaction
and thus impact on school engagement and performance at a
later stage (see Smyth et al., 2007). Given the interrelationship between
negative teacher-student interaction and student misbehaviour, it is not
surprising that misbehaviour is also associated with underperformance at